Travellers Tales at the Bristol Guild

South West Textile Group are having an exhibition at The Bristol Guild from 23rd April until 14th May. 
Title: 'Travellers Tales'

and I have just finished my main piece hurrah

'This I have heard'

 so i have come a long way since my last post about this work. the crocheted containers are now consigned to the drawer marked 'possible use in future projects' and my plaited bus tickets have become the container/reticules. i usually come back to the idea that less is more and to keep things simple and not to overwork them.

working in a spiral manner, stitched with transparent nylon sewing thread through the holes in the previous spiral they remain slightly articulated. each is about 4cm in diameter at their opening and i had to use a magnifier to work the cross stitch letters on a 1cm wide tap. the whole finished piece is 45cm long x 20cm wide.

the background was chosen with some help from my friends at a SWTG meeting and it is actually in keeping with 'tagecoach' buses as here in Exeter they are white blue and orange. the orange is a achieved with a 'Montana' aerosol paint sprayed onto white Ramie fabric and when dried i polished it by rubbing with a smooth surface. So much easier than dyeing.

because essentially they are a collection; bus ticket collection and collected phrases i have treated them like a museum collection and placed them in a perspex box. this one above complete with my image unfortunately.

please do come along and see the exhibition but please check the website for opening times.

Plaiting or is it weaving with bus tickets

i always seem to do it to myself and i'm obviously a sucker for punishment but i'm still plodding through the bus tickets. it all stemmed from conserving a straw bonnet at work and weaving japanese paper strips to match missing areas of  straw plait. i enjoyed the rhythmical nature of the plaiting and thought i would remember it for future use!

Travelling about on the bus here in Devon leaves me with a purse full of tickets i always think a waste to throw away and at last i'm putting them to some good use.

the tickets themselves are quite small 6cm x 8cm so i join about 4 together with adhesive and then cut them into 3mm wide strips! i'm using 5 strips to plait, joining more on when needed. when finished they look a bit stark although the backs are quite colourful with 'McDonald's', 'Subway' or 'Burger King' vouchers on the back - just think of all those missed meals i could have had (or not), perhaps that's another work for the future.

the great thing about the paper they use is that it's heat sensitive so i take an iron to the plait which makes the front a beautiful dark grey. i then wax the whole strip and construct them into reticule type containers using traditional bonnet making techniques by spiralling round and stitching the edge of the braid through the layer underneath.

a taster of part of the finished item. i dread to think how much i have spent on tickets!